Forced landing at Lake Eyre.

[WayneL]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/31196639/stranded-man-walked-for-18-hours-after-crash/

 

Hard to understand why he would not activate beacon and wait rather then walk out.

 

 

[pylon500]

"Missed a Darwin Award by that much!"

 

(Said in a Maxwell Smart voice.....)

 

 

[Camel]

I reckon he deserves the Darwin Award, ! Why walk if too sick to fly ? Why did he say obviously got food poisoning at his last stop ? If he had food poisoning surely he would not have been able to walk out would he ?

 

I find everything he said confusing given his situation in my opinion !

 

 

[dunlopdangler]

saw this on the news and the cynic in me thought he might have wanted a much closer look and bogged his plane... would not be the first time and probably took him 18 hours to come up with a plausible excuse..but you never know..

 

 

[red750]

Looks like a Diamond DA 40 well bogged in the salt.

 

 

[cooperplace]

while we have to accept his account of the pain being so severe that he couldn't fly, there are several questions around his subsequent actions:

 

-as WayneL says, why not activate the PLB that surely he was carrying and wait?

 

-staying with his plane, he would have had access to the abundant water supplies, that surely he was carrying?

 

-the plane looks fairly intact, so wouldn't its radio still work?

 

-did he send out a mayday? there's no mention of a mayday.

 

This is not the first time recently that people in these locations have complained about the lack of mobile phone coverage following accidents. This is unrealistic, to say the least. Obviously there's little or no phone coverage on Lake Eyre, that's why we make plans.

 

If I really, really needed to go, while flying, I'd poo in my pants rather than attempt a landing on a salt lake.

 

The great thing is that he's OK. With warmer weather he might not have made it. Recovery of that plane will be expensive.

 

All in all, rather embarrassing for the doctor.

 

 

[storchy neil]

and he is a doctor neil

 

 

[Cosmick]

If your planning to fly in that part of the country apart from the VHF and PLB a sat phone should be in the bag.

 

 

[quentas]

the whole story smells of bull shit to me.

 

 

[cooperplace]

the 70k walk in 18hrs seems extraordinary, but are you saying that the whole thing never happened? this guy really exists, and he's on TV talking about it.

 

 

[dunlopdangler]

so a supposably critically ill pilot just had to immediately land and then walked 70klms in the next 18 hours in arid conditions..... what a truly remarkable and extraordinary recovery... I'll go with my earlier view on this

 

 

[Jaba-who]

The whole thing is very fishy.

 

Regardless of why he ended up on the salt - real health reason or thought he'd do a landing for a look around etc- the resulting story of walking for 18 hours when you have all the resources in the plane is just a weird weird story.

 

 

[Guernsey]

I would take the pilot's version of what happened with a very large pinch of Lake Eyre salt.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Jaba-who]

There seems to be some extra credence or some sort of validation in the reports because he's a doctor. While not wanting to cast any aspersions toward this bloke specifically, some of the most brain dead individuals I know are doctors ( and before anyone complains I'm a doctor too).

 

The old saying - what's the most dangerous combination in aviation. A doctor and a mooney.

 

 

[facthunter]

It used to be a Doctor and a Beech Baron. Twins sort them out and a W&B criticality too. Nev

 

 

[Downunder]

Or an A35 Bonanza.....The forked-tail Doctor killer......

 

 

[Jaba-who]

Oh dear. Seems like a doctor in anything is a danger

 

 

[cooperplace]

Some parts of his account stack up quite well.

 

It seems likely that he landed on Lake Eyre, by his own account because of food poisoning. The suggestion that he walked 70km in 18 hrs seems less credible, but that's fine, maybe he didn't know exactly where he was at each end of the walk, and the true distance is a bit shorter.

 

On the other hand, the notion that he might have displayed sub-optimal judgement at various points is readily accepted.

 

The good doctor is certainly a highly-regarded member of the Adelaide medical community.

 

I've known a lot of doctors who think that their excellent clinical judgement translates into a wider ability to make great decisions. This is a problem with medical training: it teaches people to make decisions, and they get into the habit of doing that, in areas outside their specialty, such as finance, relationships, aviation, etc.

 

 

[Dingoair]

Where was he going at that time a day? I guess, ask no question and he will tell no lies!

 

 

[Jaba-who]

On an entirely different slant.

 

Looking at the picture of the diamond sitting on white salt with dark black mud exposed reminded me - an ol' mate of mine was a young ringer over on the western side of lake eyre and he and a mate were tasked to go somewhere on motorbikes. They decided to hoon out on the salt and found when they did they broke through and exposed the black mud. Being boys they decided to "write" some very large swear words across the white backdrop.

 

When they finished they headed home. What they had forgotten was the boss was a very strict god-fearing non-swearer who ruled with an iron hand. And he was a pilot who happened to be cutting across the lake on his way home that day.

 

When they arrived home that night they got their ar...s chewed out severely.

 

,

 

 

[cooperplace]

hmm, reminds me of a medical student friend who decades ago had a holiday job gardening at a large SA hospital, got fired for sleeping on the job, last thing he did was do some similar writing on their lovely lawn, using round-up.

 

 

[gibby]

The Comanche 400 took its fair share of doctors scalps in the USA as well

 

 

[poteroo]

To be fair to the medical profession - they earned a reputation from the high number of US accidents back in the 60s,70s, and I doubt it applies to the Aussie medicos. The 2 that I know best are both DAME's, and very steady pilots.

 

Many of these were due to fatigue induced loss-of-control when they extended their day and flew home at night. Whether you are NVFR or IFR, flying through extreme weather after a long stressful 'day at the office' is a recipe for loss-of-control. Sure, there probably was a little 'invulnerability' involved, but all that the high performance aircraft achieved was to get them into the heart of the bad wx a lot faster than they planned.

 

happy days,

 

 

[facthunter]

Flying something like a Baron IFR is not something you do now and again, and expect to be current and ahead of it. Nev

 

 

[Guernsey]

Just a thought, if I wanted to land on a salt lake just for the fun of it and became bogged, could I still claim damages from my insurance company???

 

Alan.